The Busy Bee, Champaign, IL (2026)

10/17/2022

I've been way too embarrassed to admit this to anyone but my husband, but here's the truth: I seriously cannot remember the last time I updated my website. If I had to guess it was almost 2 years ago? 🙊
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Even worse, my homepage talks about how I offer Squarespace design, and ya girl hasn't touched SS in a really REALLY long time. In fact, I'm a full Wordpress developer now, and never ever going back to Squarespace.
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Have I wanted to update my website? OF COURSE. Have I found every excuse not to? Yep - this is why we're here now.
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If you're still reading this (bless your heart), I just wanted to throw this truth out into the public and remind you that nobody has their s**t together. Nobody. I'm a (heck, fairly successful) web developer and haven't touched my own outdated site in 2 years.
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Keep doing the best you can in whatever moment/day that you're in and know that it's enough ❤️
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Now, who else wants to air out their dirty true stories in the comments so I feel less alone 😂

04/06/2021

Appreciation post for all the illustrators out there — I see you and I wish I could be you 🙇🏻‍♀️😂

Illustrations are showing up everywhere, grabbing your attention and bringing in some personality to an otherwise stale design.

If you're not the most talented illustrator like myself, I've put together this lil carousel to show you (just a few!) of some of the illustration resources I've been digging lately.

Have a favorite illustration resource not mentioned here? Give them a shoutout below! 👇🏼

via .app

03/03/2021

Big big big changes happening over here! 🚨
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I don't know why I struggled so much with getting this post out there — call it entrepreneur's guilt or fear of what people may think or just plain procrastination – but it's about time I shared my big news with you all! 👏🏻
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At the beginning of the month, I started a full-time design & development job, working with some of the most talented and badass ladies I've ever met and I couldn't be more thrilled 🍾
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The Busy Bee isn't going anywhere, just shape shifting a bit 😉 It's going to take a bit of time to grow into my "full-time legs," so I won't be taking on any new client work anytime soon. BUT, I'll still be serving up design and development tips and tricks, hopefully some new digital downloads and obviously lots of dog photos because .
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👉🏼I want to stress this to anyone who currently owns their own business but is contemplating working for someone else: your journey is just that— YOURS. It doesn't have to look like everyone else's because honey, you're not like anyone else.
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A variation of experience doesn't stifle your creativity or make you an unsuccessful business owner 🙅🏻‍♀️ Au contraireit my beautiful little butterfly — changing it up only helps build a wider perspective on life, creativity, and possibilities...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀..and I'm ready to see what life brings on next ✨

02/09/2021

Having a website for your business, even if it's plain jane, is still WAY better than having no website at all.
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If your biz doesn't have the budget for a custom website (or the time), check out these amazing designers' Squarespace templates! There are so many out there, but here's a handful of my faves ❤️(scroll through to read more about each one of them!)
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👉🏼 .co
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Want to see even more? Peep the "Guides" section of my Instagram bio to see my guide on Squarespace templates 👀
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AND, if you also create + sell Squarespace templates, drop your name in the comments below! ✨

01/27/2021

Trying something new on...wanna join in on the fun? ⚡️

Introducing: Squarespace Skills—quick tidbits of knowledge that I'll drop (fingers-crossed) every week for you to save, implement or dig into a little deeper.

This week, let's talk about categories and tags 🏷

👏🏻 Although Squarespace lets you add an unlimited numbers of tags and categories to your site, I never recommend doing that.

Why? 🤔 These bad boys are key to organizing your site in an easy-to-navigate way, and while they give you opportunities to implement search-engine optimized keywords into your site, overdoing it will cause a ton of confusion for your site visitors.

✅ Here's what to do: to keep things tidy, stick to using one category per post or product, since categories are used to organize content by subject or type.

✨With tags, you can be a bit more generous, basing those on keywords, subject matter or anything else relevant to the content.

Knowledge is power! 💪🏼 You can dive deeper into categories and tags by taking my short course all about it on Skillshare: skillshare.com/r/user/thebusybee (using that link will get you 14 days FREE of Skillshare Premium!)

01/23/2021

Repeat after me: it’s okay to be weird.

It’s totally okay to make goofy faces, like to do odd things, talk differently than others and to have out-of-the-box passions.

Being “weird” just means you’re being you, so from one weirdo to another, hay hai hello you’re cool and you’re always welcome here ❤️

Now onto regularly scheduled programming (aka Netflix 😂)

01/20/2021

's words today brought instant tears to my eyes. It's like she took on the entire nation's anxiety, hope, frustration and fear and wove it together in the most beautiful way, offering peace and understanding, calm and optimism.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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I can honestly say that her poem changed me and moved me and I will forever be a supporter of her incredible work.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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❤️Double tab if you loved her poem as much as me!

01/20/2021

Hello, my name is Megan and I'm obsessed with crafting 🧶🎨🧵🪡⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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I started knitting in 6th grade, slowly taught myself how to crochet (thanks, YouTube!) then moved onto hand embroidery, sewing, natural fiber dyeing, punch needle and a heck of a lot more 🙌⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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It's like a drug to me — I learn one craft and then get an itch to learn another. It's also like therapy to me — I get to escape the real world for a bit and enter my own little world filled with soft yarn and bright colors and crazy patterns. It's the self-care that I allow myself to have every 👏🏻single 👏🏻 day 👏🏻.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Next on the "to learn" list: 🧶Weaving!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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If you're a crafty cat like myself, drop your go-to craft of choice in the comments below 🙌

01/14/2021

Did you know that quick (and consistent) updates to your website helps tremendously with SEO? 🤯⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Search engines like Google have algorithms that help figure out what to display when someone searches, and relevancy plays a huge part in that.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Here are 5 easy ways to quickly update your website without putting in too much work:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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❶ Find a blog post that's outdated and update it with new information. Things move quickly, so stats, advice, tutorials, etc. can often change.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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❷ If you show off testimonials on your site, make sure you have new ones up! Go through your Google reviews, Facebook or Yelp (if you're on there) to see if there are new testimonials to add.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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❸ If you're like me, the photos of you on your website are outdated (I mean, I've got bangs now, people!) 🙄🤣 Update the photos of yourself on your website, but make sure they're either high-quality and high-resolution or taken by a professional!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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❹ Add in new portfolio projects to your site if you display them. This one doesn't go AS quickly as the others, but having an up-to-date portfolio to show to potential clients or customers is worth the extra few min.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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❺ Hate blogging like me? Repurpose some of your old content! Similar to #1, there may be enough new information to create a totally new post about a particular topic without having to completely reinvent the wheel.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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So truth time: How often do you update your website?

01/06/2021

Do you have 30 seconds to spare? ⚡️⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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It's super easy to set and forget your footer and all of the content in it. Trust me—having an outdated footer is one of the most common things I see when I perform website audits.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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So here's your little friendly reminder to update the copyright year in the footer of your website! It takes 30 seconds to do and keeps you looking fresh & on top of things to prospective clients and customers 🙌

12/25/2020

Wishing you a Merry Christmas (eve), a glass with something bubbly, a mind full of good memories and a glimpse of joy in the ordinary 🥂 Cheers, friends and a very Merry Christmas to you.

12/22/2020

It's the first *official* day of winter and normally that would make me crawl under a mound of blankets and pretend it's not like, -10 degrees outside (🙄) but this year, I'm feeling a bit different.

If 2020 has shown me anything, it's to be grateful for every good thing that comes around, from the Starbucks drive-through barista commenting on how she digs my outfit to finding organic chicken on super sale at Target (yes, I know it's going bad tomorrow but I stuck it in the freezer and it's all good 👌🏼)

And, although social media can make me go nuts sometimes, I'm grateful for the community it's brought me — for beautiful humans like you that take the time to read the word vomit that I've managed to type out as a caption and to encourage and support me and my business.

So to you, my dear friend, thank you for being the unique you that you are and for making 2020 bearable. I'm so dang grateful for you and please don't ever change 🥰

The Busy Bee

10/17/2022

04/06/2021

03/03/2021

02/09/2021

01/27/2021

01/23/2021

01/20/2021

01/20/2021

01/14/2021

01/06/2021

12/25/2020

12/22/2020

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